The Pudukottai police arrested 23 people including a DMK office bearer for gambling with stakes worth millions of rupees.
Ponpethi Sundarapandian, the Avudaiyar Koil Union Councilor belonging to the DMK, owns a coconut plantation in Sirukadavakottai near Ponnamangalam area in Pudukkottai District.
Complaints arose that large-scale gambling was taking place inside this coconut grove at night.
Under the orders of District SP Balaji Saravanan the police team headed by Inspector Baskaran, conducted a covert search operation inside the coconut groves and found large scale gambling worth millions of rupees. The culprits upon seeing the police ran helter-skelter with all of them getting caught later.
DMK Union Councillor Sundarapandian, Venkatesh, Muthu, Basheer Ahmed, Fakrudeen, Vijayakumar, Neelakandan and 16 others were arrested and ₹13,62,789 was seized from them for gambling. A case has been registered on all of them.
It is said that the gambling took place on a small scale initially, which is said to have grown on a large scale with many people coming in from Trichy, Thanjavur, Ramanathapuram and Sivagangai.
The police are now on the vigil to see if gambling is taking place in the surrounding areas.